The background art shows a variety of designs for portable clothes closet apparatuses and bumper mounted attachments to vehicles to provide additional storage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,744 issued to John A. Joslyn on Mar. 1, 1977, is disclosed a mobile rack for carrying bicycles. The rack comprises a bumper mounted attachment from which are extended two vertical standards having rods extending horizontally with portions extending perpendicularly outward from the vertical standards. The horizontal portions have indentations to accept bicycles. The apparatus provides a bag to cover the bicycles mounted on the rack to prevent road dirt from being deposited on the bicycles.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,693, issued to Terry Cooper, Sr. on Dec. 18, 1976, is shown a bumper attachment to be applied to small cars to extend the storage space of the car. A five-sided enclosure is mounted on the back bumper of an automobile and has a hinged top to open the compartment to accept luggage. The structure is provided to support the enclosure which is attached to and cantilevered from the frame of the vehicle. Mounted in the back wall of the storage compartment is a license plate holder, safety lights and a bumper. This device can be used to add storage capacity to small cars.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,616,599, issued to N. A. Hrychorczuk on Nov. 4, 1952, is disclosed a bumper mounted storage device to expand the storage capacity of a vehicle. This device discloses a wooden storage box to be attached to the back bumper of a vehicle and provides a generally cubic-shaped storage compartment to be hung by attachment means from the rear bumper of the vehicle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,999, issued to S. P. Barrett on Dec. 16, 1969, is shown a portable, foldable and collapsible storage frame to support clothes draped on clothes hangers which are to be hung from a cross bar of the frame. The frame has a horizontal cross bar and two telescoping legs hingedly mounted on each end of the cross bar. The frame may be folded in transit and unfolded in a remote location, the legs extended telescopically to support the cross bar and provide a bar for storage of clothing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,545, issued to J. Garfunkel on July 7, 1959, is shown a structure for a collapsible wardrobe. The wardrobe comprises a flat, planar shipping crate which may be folded into the wardrobe. The flat crate may be folded into a rectangular shipping crate and a cross bar is provided to be attached to the upper edge of the cardboard crate. The cross bar is shown in cross section to have grooves running down the longitudinal centerline of the cross bar to accept the ends of the hanging hooks and lockingly engage the hanging hooks to prevent them from becoming disengaged during inadvertent movement of the wardrobe during shipment.